Joe Banner

The following report originally appeared on the Daily News Eagles' blog, Eagletarian.com       IT'S WAY TOO early to obsess over an Eagles coaching search that isn't even going to start for a couple of months yet, but hey, what else do we have to think about? I'd love to know who's going to be running the search. I guess I envision a Jeffrey Lurie-Howie Roseman tag team, which was the way the interviews went in 1999, the last time the Eagles did this, with Joe Banner in Howie's role.

I'm about to assert something really unpopular. In fact, I'm not quite sure how I can top this, unless I show up Sunday at the Linc in a Tony Romo jersey, wearing J.D. Drew batting gloves and carrying an autographed Sidney Crosby hockey stick. Here's the thing: When news broke earlier in the week that the Eagles had extended general manager Howie Roseman's contract upon the departure of Joe Banner in June, I felt sorry for Howie. Fan frustration is at its zenith; from the Eagles' viewpoint, there could not have been a worse time for such news to emerge.

Jeff Lurie made a mistake back in June. Giving Howie Roseman a contract extension wasn't it. The mistake was in failing to announce the extension immediately. It would have been about the 100th most newsworthy item from the surreal news conference in which Joe Banner's departure was spun as a joyful event for everyone involved. Announcing it then would have been no big deal. Having news of Roseman's extension come out now, thanks to the relentless reporting of The Inquirer's Jeff McLane, was a big deal.

A SOURCE CLOSE to the situation Tuesday confirmed an Inquirer report that said when Joe Banner left the Eagles in June, general manager Howie Roseman got a contract extension. The report pegged the extension at 4 or 5 years. The person who spoke with the Daily News would say only that it was a "solid" extension of Roseman's original deal, which was in its third year at the time. Roseman, 37, has to take some of the heat for a roster that seems to have much less talent and particularly less depth than the Eagles projected.

More than two months after it was first reported, Joe Banner was officially named chief executive officer of the Cleveland Browns Tuesday after NFL owners unanimously approved Jimmy Haslam's purchase of the team. "It was a long ride that was actually quite short," Banner told the Inquirer . "It's incredibly exciting. Everybody is wired differently, but this is something I've been looking forward to for some time, something I've wanted to take on. It's the same way I felt when I first came to Philadelphia.

CHICAGO - In June, at the news conference to formally announce that he would be stepping down as Eagles president, Joe Banner said he was looking for "one more really big challenge in my life. " Welcome to Cleveland, Joe. Shortly after the NFL owners unanimously approved the $1.05 billion sale of the Browns to Tennessee billionaire Jimmy Haslam III on Tuesday, Haslam confirmed that Banner would be joining the organization as its chief executive officer. Banner's name has been linked to the Browns since early July, when Haslam began negotiating to buy the team from previous owner Randy Lerner.

The Eagles locker room seems happier this season as opposed to last. Winning will do that. Despite the popular perception four months ago after Joe Banner stepped down as team president, the locker room didn't suddenly turn into Tijuana when general manager Howie Roseman formally assumed the handling of all contract matters. Roseman had been in charge, really, as far back as February. He, with Jeffrey Lurie's blessing and Andy Reid's counsel, engineered contract extensions for four key members of the Eagles.

LOOKING AT SOME highlights, lowlights and other insanity bound to crop up with the Eagles' schedule this season. Week 1. Sunday, Sept. 9: at Cleveland, 1 p.m. (Fox)   Joe Banner's first act as a Browns executive is to ban fans from bringing biscuits into the stadium's renowned dawg pound. Pick: Brandon Weeden throws three interceptions. Eagles, 27-13. Week 2. Sunday, Sept. 16: Baltimore, 1 (CBS)   Good thing this isn't a conference championship game.

Welcome to the No-Lose Season for Jeffrey Lurie, even though some would portray 2012 as the most perilous for the Eagles' owner in the recent history of the organization. After watching the team fail to win a playoff game for three straight seasons, after betting the limit on quarterback Michael Vick, and after putting the head coach on notice that this is truly a make-or-break situation in his tenure here, Lurie certainly will be watched closely. The television cameras will peer into the luxury suites to catalog every cheer and every grimace.